Exploring The Balvenie

David Stewart

The focus has well and truly been on The Balvenie this week.  On the 3rd of September David Stewart, the legendary Balvenie Malt Master responsible for the quality and consistency of every bottle of Balvenie, celebrated his 50th anniversary at the distillery.  He began as a 17 year old apprentice back in 1962 and, as reported in this week's Inbox, commemorated the special day by announcing the release of a Balvenie 50 years old single malt that has been maturing at the distillery as long as David has been there.

We don't pretend to know David, having only met him very briefly, but he seems to be a true gentleman of the industry and a humble, modest one at that.  Balvenie has always been close to our hearts, as it is one of the whiskies (the DoubleWood 12 years old to be exact) that got myself and Karen properly interested in the world of single malts.  We were delighted when we got the opportunity to tour around the distillery earlier this year (click here to read about that) and have just recently discovered a great set of videos on YouTube which offer an insight into life at the distillery.

We thought it would be a good idea to share these four informative videos with you.  They are presented by Kevin McCloud (a TV presenter of Grand Designs fame), who was also a judge at this year's Balvenie Master of Crafts awards.  The Master of Crafts is a celebration of artisan craftsmen in the UK and the videos were filmed for the awards, showing aspects of the craftsmanship used on a daily basis at the distillery.  Balvenie is almost unique in the Scotch industry as it is heavily reliant on these traditional crafts and we hope that you enjoy watching and learning about them as much as we did ...